No, I didn’t camp out in any lines for Black Friday (if you don’t count queuing up in a couple virtual lines for some online sales the past few days) but I did see a ton of people lined up outside the local Best Buy, Target and GameStop earlier in the week, which means they were camped out for days. I heard there were a couple of great discounts on computer equipment, but you really couldn’t name a (realistic) discount that would have me lining up for over a couple hours, at most. Let’s hope jefbot’s getting something supercool.
So did you BOTpeeps brave the lines for Black Friday? Have you ever? What would you line up for this holiday season?
BTW, here’s how bot handled Black Friday in the past. (And pretty much how I’ve handled it for the past few years.):
• JEFBOT.193_Shopping a la Cart
I find it strange that you guys follow such a lovely, secular, family oriented holiday as Thanksgiving with such a venal thing as Black Friday!
yeah, i can’t defend it, Jim, and i usually don’t participate (especially with online shops being a thing), but if i had a family and kids, waiting in line to get discounts might be something i’d do. but otherwise: nah.
and check you out – you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well: these have warmers to keep your eyeballs cozy should you find yourself in a line for hours out in the cold:
😎
What happened to my Gravatar? Oh. Tyop in email!
d’oh!
Man that’s cold, how could Corfather leave ‘bot hangin?
I actually worked on black Friday at wlamart. It was…something else.
yikes! just watching videos of what happens at Walmart on Black Friday is frightening enough, 52pickup!
“What would you line up for this holiday season?”
Probably the *only* thing that I’d line up for is if I heard that someone finally released an all-injection-molded 1/32 scale F-101B Voodoo, F-102 Delta Dagger or F-106 Delta Dart. (The Dagger and Dart are available as vacu-form kits, but they were rather large airplanes and the kits are way beyond my modeling skills.)
wow, those sound like worthy things to line up for, r61! and way way way beyond my meager modeling skills.
I personally support the holiday “Spend Nothing Day”. It falls on Black Friday every year and personally is a lot better than having to deal with other shoppers.
now that i don’t have a job, i’ll be celebrating “spend nothing day” pretty much all year, GB!
MANY years ago I got up early to wait in line only because I got a free football autographed by Joe Montana! It was a cheep piece of crap, but I was such a huge fan I didn’t care! hahahaha NEVER AGAIN!!!!
was it a real autograph, Richtpt? or just printed on the football? if it was real, i’d say it’s worth much more than free, now! if not: well, darn. 🙂
Yeah, no. Screw Black Friday forever. It started as a family tradition that we would stay home and set up all our Christmas tree and ornaments and lights and stuff on Black Friday, but now that I’m all grow’d up and moved out, it’s mostly just an excuse to stay inside and play video games for 12 hours straight.
I can barely stand crowds to begin with, and I’m not about to go fighting a bunch of discount-crazed shoppers just to get a bag of chips or something and risk getting shot just cause I looked at some lady’s Xbox 360 the wrong way.
… Also I’m incredibly cheap and lazy and don’t really ever do a lot of Christmas shopping. But pay attention to all that other stuff first.
playing video games for 12 hours straight sounds much better than waiting in the cold for a discount, Alexander, so i’m with ya!
and, yeah: i hate crowds, too. while i used to like going to malls to go Christmas shopping, fighting bigger and bigger crowds has made that less pleasurable, so now i do most of my shopping online.
I lost my job earlier this year , and have been living in my brothers car for a few months . Hes out of town right now, so his roommates are letting me sleep in his room tonight .
I found a link for your comic while catching up on other I used to read frequently , and couldn’t pull my self away , and read it from start to currant , and feel it was a night well spent .
Thanks for making me smile , I hope you continue writing this for a long while.
i just lost my job earlier this month, Gev, so i understand some of what you’re going through. glad you’re able to sleep in a bed tonight.
thanks so much for taking the time to read through my archive! happy it gave you some smiles, especially while you’re unemployed.
and i’m hoping to continue JEFbot for as long as people are reading! 😀
No lines for me. The only place I shoped yesterday was at a craft store to stock up on cheap, machine washable yarn. I promised to make and donate a bunch of baby blankets, so I got almost $200 worth of yarn for close to $100. Score!
We desperately need a new computer and a new TV (we still have a thick, old school TV that now shows pink in the upper right corner), so I am trying to convince my husband to do research for some Monday purchasing. I don’t think he will though, and I don’t have the time or inclination to research such things.
Your best bet will probably be to buy online. Not only do you not have to worry about crowds, but things tend to stay in stock longer. Places like Newegg.com or Tigerdirect.com have some pretty good deals to begin with, and I’m sure they’ll have even better stuff throughout the month.
true that, Alexander. i’ve never bought a tv online (i think the last one i got was from Costco) but i think that’s the way i’m gonna go the next time i need one. (gods willing, i won’t need a new one for a long while.)
that’s way cool that you’re making and donating all those baby blankets, Shanna! you’re awesome. (but we already knew that.) 😀
hopefully your hubby can find the time to get that tv research done! i used to have a television with some distortion in the corner and on the sides and it drove me crazy.
Bad enough, a few years ago, I got up at 3:30 to get to a Target that opening at 5 and the line was still around the building. Never do that again! No discount is worth it.
Although, I wonder if those people would make fun of the people how wait in line for weeks to see the new Star Wars movie?
i agree, TPC – i’d rather spend the time all snug in bed, truth be told. rest is good!
and, yes: they’d totally make fun of Star Wars geeks. i wonder if i’ll be lining up for the new sequels? hmmm…
I cant blame Cornfather one bit. Still you dont do this to best bud.
yeah, his callousness is kinda justified, Maryz, but no doubt he’ll get an earful from bot later. 🙂
Hells no I didn’t wait in any lines. I waited till way later in the day to even go outside yesterday. And the only thing either me or my brother even bought was a used PS2 controller.
i did the same, Fijman – i stayed indoors ’til nighttime, and then i only went out to meet a friend to see Wreck it Ralph. the movie was totally worth getting stuck in some traffic on the way there. 🙂
I still want to see that movie.
I don’t think I will ever line up at midnight. No deal is worth losing sleep or sanity over. And 99% of the time you can find better deals online.
the “online” deals you speak of are the main reason i don’t go out to shop much at all anymore, dj!
For a moment there, I thought bot got fired from his own strip and replaced with a low-wage Eastern European immigrant who probably had an ethnically stereotypical name. Just for a moment, though.
ha! that would just be saaaaad, E. A.! but somehow appropriate, seeing as how the strip imitates life and vice-versa much of the time. 🙂
Oh, and I have always avoided every retail establishment on Black Friday. I don’t need that hassle, and people spend more at a sale than they would when everything is at regular price. It’s a natural human compulsion. The increased spending is usually directly proportionate to the size of the savings.
i used to get all excited about Black Friday sales, but – like you – i just can’t be hassled anymore. i don’t want to fight anyone to get a discount, even if it’s for like, $50 off of something i want. just not worth it.
Bender doesn’t do standing in the cold because he’s thin and doesn’t own an unfashionably-thick-enough coat to withstand to cold. Plus, those people in line for days be cray-cray. Maybe if the bank was offering a 1/20-odds chance to win $10,000 to the first five people to draw the right slip of paper; that’d be worth risking pneumonia.
Yeah, I did my shopping Friday EVENING . . .at Barnes & Noble . . . for a fantasy novel.
while i’m not as skinny as i used to be, i’d be freezing out there, too, Bender_Sastre! i’d probably be too cold to move once the line started moving, which would defeat the whole purpose of camping out. brrrr. i’m getting cold just thinking about it.
now, hitting a B&N for a book sounds like something i could handle. 🙂
I dont camp out, not for shopping, nor out in the woods.
As for jefbots pee problem, I think he could use a bottle to fix it…
i’m a big fan of camping, DAS, although i haven’t done any real camping – like sleeping bags and tents and stuff – in many years. hopefully, i’ll find the time to do some of that next year!
i like to think that bot has filled all the pee bottles in his tent and has now run out of options, heightening his need to get the Cornfather to help him!
I’M BACK. I betcha all missed me. If you even remember me.
Caught up finally on everything I missed. Like the new site design, but I’m partial to everything in grey and silver…
hey! welcome back, Kate! glad to see you back. also happy you like the new site design (although it’s still a work-in-progress.)
so where have you been all this time?
I think I wandered off when the site went down for an extended period of time, and then I was moving from central Illinois to Philadelphia. And then I started my PhD program, which still threatens to consume my life entirely! History of Science at Penn. It’s pretty awesome, yes yes. What about you, how are things going?
I didn’t go to any Black Friday events, but my family went to one of the 8pm openings of Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving. My dad was near a pile of computers when an employee told the crowd that they could start taking them. A few minutes later when the feeding frenzy faded a bit, my dad saw some people trying to help someone who had fallen over. She wouldn’t accept help because then she would have had to put down the computer.
well, it’s nice to hear that your dad and others actually stopped to help that person, Ceallo! i’ve seen so many videos of people on Black Friday hitting/pepper spraying/tasering/punching/kicking each other, it’s good to know people can still be rational and empathetic amidst the chaos! hope your dad got some good stuff, at least.
AHAHA! I did this (without the tent). Its not as crazy as I thought it’d be, there’s actually some really nice people. But the porta potties are really gross..
ewwww… where’d you do this, Nat? Best Buy? did you get good stuff and how long were you in line? anyway, glad it wasn’t as bad as it looks. 🙂
No ewww! Yeah I went to the Best Buy in empire center, I was there for four hours! I bought a kindle and some dvds, there actually wasn’t a single place that had deals on the Kindle! But I got a $30 gift card with it.
No Black Friday for us. We stayed home and played Munchkin and made amazing turkey soup.
However, I am taking the today off in honor of Cyber Monday (actually, Nanowrimo, but I plan to multitask).
We are broke so no real BF for us. Though hubby did venture out to get me my $2 dvd’s cause he loves me.
The only thing I’d consider camping out for is the premiere of a movie I’ve been waiting for (and since Les Mis and the Hobbit come out next month, the second coldest month in the calendar year, I shan’t be doing that) or to meet a favored celebrity. Otherwise, nope, tents are for the woods and the blessed away-from-crowds spaces. I don’t do well in crowds; I tend to start shoving if people get too close. (Being 5’3″ doesn’t help *at all*…I feel crowded easily)
I never did get the whole Black Friday thing can someone explain it to me?